


this is a cold war

by strawberry_sky



Category: Dimension 20 (A Crown of Candy), Dimension 20 (Web Series)
Genre: Canon-Typical Angst, Canon-Typical Violence, F/F, Hurt/Comfort, also because it's me and because it's crown of candy this is....sad, like not full on angst but like....bittersweet, the inherent homoeroticism of a queen and her knight, yeah swifty is in this i'm so sorry
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-22
Updated: 2020-07-22
Packaged: 2021-03-05 04:36:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,202
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25438555
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/strawberry_sky/pseuds/strawberry_sky
Summary: Gooey is five when the Ravening War ends and fifteen when she understands that war doesn't end, not really.In the wake of this realization she has lost her home, her family, and her right eye, and has gained a burning hatred for the Bulbian Church and everyone who pretends that the Concordant Empire is ruling over a time of peace.Gooey is twenty-one and living alone in the Candian wilderness when she meets the first person who feels the same way.(or, Gooey, Saccharina, and the few years that led up to a family reunion in a cave)
Relationships: Saccharina Frostwhip/Gooey
Comments: 10
Kudos: 38





	this is a cold war

**Author's Note:**

> mild tw for injury, religious abuse, violence--just the things that are already present in canon.

Gooey is five when the Ravening War ends and fifteen when she understands that war doesn't end, not really. 

In the wake of this realization she has lost her home, her family, and her right eye, and has gained a burning hatred for the Bulbian Church and everyone who pretends that the Concordant Empire is ruling over a time of peace. 

Gooey is twenty-one and living alone in the Candian wilderness when she meets the first person who feels the same way. She looks a little younger than Gooey, maybe only eighteen or nineteen, but Gooey’s not really processing that because she’s busy thinking about how this woman just stretched out her hand and shot lightning from it, incinerating the guards that Gooey had been fully prepared to go down fighting. 

“Are you hurt?” asks the woman, flicking her pale pink hair out of her eyes. 

Gooey, whose father had been a knight once upon a time, drops to one knee. “You saved my life,” she says in a low voice. “I’m in your debt.” 

“Oh, please don’t do that,” says the woman. “We should go. There might be more coming. What did you do to piss them off so much?” 

“Burned down a church,” says Gooey, wincing slightly as she pushes herself to her feet. At least two of her ribs are cracked. 

The woman had already been crossing to help her up, but at what Gooey says she pauses. “No shit?” 

Gooey smiles faintly, remembering it. “They knocked down somebody’s house to build it. I can’t bring the house back, but maybe they can build a new one on the ashes.” 

“Oh, we’re going to get along  _ great _ ,” says the woman, her face breaking into a huge grin. “I’m Saccharina.” 

“I’m Gooey.” 

“Well, don’t just stand there, Gooey,” says Saccharina, holding out her hand. “You wanna go burn down another church?” 

Gooey takes her hand. Technically, she drops it immediately, as Saccharina’s hand is still sparking slightly with electricity. 

Metaphorically, she never lets it go again. 

They travel north, out of Candia, heading for the Dairy Sea. Gooey has friends there, her father’s old war buddies. She tells Saccharina this that first night, at a campfire that Saccharina conjures with a snap of her fingers. 

She tells Saccharina everything, in fact. How her father had been devoted to the spirits of the Sweetening Path, how they’d given him the strength to fight for Candia in the Ravening War. How he had decided to retire with his family to a quiet hamlet in the mountains near Ceresia. How Gooey and her younger siblings had grown up learning to fight and live in the hills and respect the Sweetening Path. 

How a group of Bulbian zealots had come over the border from Ceresia and burned their home. Burned Gooey’s family. How only she had escaped into the mountains, injured and alone, unable to save anyone she cared about. 

Saccharina listens, silently, her eyes not wide with shock or sad with pity, but occasionally flashing with anger. When Gooey finishes and stares silently at her hands in the firelight, marveling at all the story she hadn’t even known she needed to tell, Saccharina reaches out and gently lays her cool hand on Gooey’s unscarred cheek, turning her head toward her.

“That shouldn’t have happened to you,” she says quietly. “Candia shouldn’t have let that happen to you.” 

“I shouldn’t have let it happen,” Gooey mutters, not meeting Saccharina’s eyes. 

“Hey.” Saccharina gently tips Gooey’s chin up. Her eyes are as deep and powerful as the Dairy Sea. “Forgiven. Okay? You’re forgiven.” 

The hard and bitter shell around Gooey’s heart shatters all at once, and she bursts into tears. 

It takes them three weeks to reach the coast of the Dairy Sea. Saccharina is much slower with her secrets than Gooey is, but they come out, piece by piece, casual sentence by late-night confession. The orphanage. The magic in her blood, and the nuns who tried to pull it out with shame and pain and anger. The visions of a woman in blue, of a frozen temple, of a wooden spoon sticking out of a hill of shaved ice. 

The last secret comes on the night before they reach their destination, when they’re close enough to smell the sea air on the wind. “I did know my mother, before she died,” says Saccharina quietly. 

Gooey looks up from the axe she’s in the middle of sharpening. Saccharina is squatting next to the fire, poking it with a stick even though Gooey knows she can keep it burning with a thought. Her hair has fallen over one of her eyes. 

“Her name was Catherine Ghee,” Saccharina continues. “She was from the Dairy Islands, and she met a Candian soldier during the war, and they got married. In a Bulbian church and everything. But he had to go back to Candia before he even knew she was pregnant, and she never saw him again.”

Saccharina pauses. Gooey watches her in silence, waiting for whatever she’s not saying. 

“His name was Amethar of House Rocks,” Saccharina says slowly. “He was fifth in line for the throne. Told her he’d come back for her when the war was all over. But then...all his sisters died, and he was king. And he never came back. And he married someone else, even though he was still married to my mother.” 

Saccharina straightens, standing and looking down at Gooey. Her eyes are wide, her expression open and almost afraid. The fire lights her from below, and she seems to tower. “He was still married to my mother. That makes me the firstborn, legitimate child of the king of Candia. And I know it’s impossible to believe--” 

Gooey is already moving, pushing herself off the dirt, her axe falling to the ground behind her as she goes to one knee in front of Saccharina. “Your majesty,” she says quietly. 

Saccharina stutters to a stop. She had proof, explanations, stories of her Aunt Lazuli, things her mother had said, all the ways Saccharina has justified and proven it to herself over and over again. 

But Gooey didn’t even hesitate. And Saccharina hadn’t realized until this moment just how much she needed to be  _ believed _ . 

“Well, don’t call me that,” she says, half-laughing with relief, reaching out her hand to help Gooey up. “I think the monarchy should be abolished and I intend to do exactly that as soon as I have the throne. Except first I’m going to destroy the Bulbian church, and bring magic back to Candia. And then I’ll abolish the monarchy.” 

“Sure,” says Gooey, accepting the offered hand, letting Saccharina lift her to her feet. “Once you’re queen, you can do anything.” 

“I don’t have the throne yet,” says Saccharina, looking at Gooey’s intense expression, her warm eyes. Their hands still pressed together, their faces only inches apart. “The king has other daughters. He may not welcome a witch-child making a random claim to the throne.” 

“Then I will be with you and protect you and support you every step of the way,” Gooey says, lifting Saccharina’s hand and pressing it to her lips. 

And all of a sudden, there is a lump in Saccharina’s throat and tears in her eyes. “Thank you,” she whispers, because it’s all the words she can manage. Saccharina doesn’t need to be protected. She doesn’t need to be supported. She can go it alone. 

Because no one has ever been there to do it before.

They fall asleep right next to each other. 

The next day, they make it to the Dairy Sea, and they find Gooey’s father’s friends, and they take to the waves. And, person by person, Queen Saccharina begins to emerge. She is funny and kind and passionate, soft when she can be and harsh when she needs to be, and power radiates off her like a halo. 

Within a year, she has her own ship. Within two, it’s an entire fleet. 

Saccharina spares no time on the official or the legitimate. She takes in the outcasts, the pirates, the mean and dirty and forgotten. 

She’s standing on the deck one day, surveying the yogurt shoals, when a shout comes from belowdecks, “We’ve got a stowaway!”

Saccharina hurries downstairs to find Gooey and Jon Bon both grappling with what looks like a small gingerbread child--at least, until she sees the glint of steel in his hand. 

“Stop--fighting--me!” Gooey says through gritted teeth. 

“LET ME GO YOU MOTHERFUCKERS! I’LL GUT YOU LIKE A BUNCH OF FISH! I’VE KILLED FUCKERS TWICE YOUR SIZE AND I’M NOT AFRAID TO KILL AGAIN!” the gingerbread man screams at a pitch that nearly pierces Saccharina’s eardrums. 

“Okay, let’s not do that,” Saccharina mutters under her breath, and slams her foot into the ground, unleashing a wave of thunderous energy that doesn’t hurt, but does startle. The gingerbread man stops struggling, and looks at Saccharina with wide, furious eyes.

Saccharina kneels, so she’s at eye level with the little man. “Hey.” 

The man recovers quickly from his shock and starts struggling again, and Gooey and Bon Jon, despite both being twice his size, are barely able to hold him in place. “I’ll cut your fucking eyeballs out, I don’t care if you are a witch--” 

"You good with that knife?" Saccharina asks. 

"What's it to you?"

"You prepared to risk your life and commit wild acts of treason for the hope of fabulous magical treasures?"

That gets the gingerbread man's attention. He stops struggling and looks at her. "How fabulous we talking?"

"You got any qualms about gutting a nun?"

The gingerbread man grins wickedly. "None whatsoever." 

Saccharina sticks out her hand. "Then welcome to the Frosted Fleet."

Gooey and Bon Jon exchange a glance, then reluctantly release the gingerbread man. He makes a sudden lunge in Bon Jon’s direction, cackles when the big man flinches, and then shakes Saccharina’s hand. “I’m Swifty.” 

“Are you sure about this, your majesty?” Gooey mutters as Bon Jon leads Swifty to meet the rest of the crew.

“We need a fucked-up little guy like that,” says Saccharina with a shrug. “And don’t call me that.” 

It’s basically a reflex at this point, Gooey calling Saccharina “your majesty” and Saccharina telling her not to. She’s pointed out that even if she  _ was  _ answering to a title, which she’s not, it should technically be “your highness,” as Amethar is still the king. Gooey just chuckled and said she was practicing. 

With the rest of her crew, Saccharina is much more insistent on being called Captain Saccharina or just Saccharina. Being queen was never the point, and she doesn’t want them to think it is. But with Gooey, the first one to ever use that title--or any title--for her, she kind of likes the game. 

They continue to sail through the waters north of Candia and make occasional trips into the Great Stone Candy Mountains. They recruit druids and priests of the Sweetening path, who teach Saccharina to hone and control her magic. They recruit warriors, rogues, monks, bandits, and all of them teach and learn from each other, and all of them grow stronger. 

Saccharina’s followers worship every word that drops from her mouth. This does not surprise Gooey in the slightest. Saccharina has saved all of them--many of them quite literally, with the magic she wields as deftly and skillfully as the spirits of the Sweetening Path, but some of them more abstractly. Saccharina represents hope for a better Candia, one that they can shape and claim and have a place in. And until they have that place, they have a place with each other, and with Saccharina. 

So it doesn’t surprise Gooey that they love her. Gooey does, too.

But Gooey is the only one who Saccharina will let into her cabin when she’s badly injured, like the night after their fight to claim the Spooning Staff. Saccharina takes off all her armor, and her shirt, and lets Gooey dress her wounds in silence, and Gooey does not comment on the old scars that criss-cross her back and shoulders, the ones that Saccharina goes to such lengths to not have to look at or talk about. 

“Thank you,” says Saccharina quietly, sitting on her bed as Gooey goes to leave.

“Of course,” says Gooey, pausing in the doorframe. “Protect you and be by your side, I promised, remember, your majesty?” 

Saccharina smiles, softly. “Every day. And don’t call me that.” 

The months go on, and Gooey has never felt more alive. 

And then they sail a little too close to Vegetania. 

Gooey can handle the holy knights, can handle the hits she takes, can even handle the sounds of her friends falling in battle.

But the Bulbian knights light one of the ships on fire. 

They get away, eventually, and with minimal losses. But the screams that are echoing in Gooey’s mind are not the ones she heard today. 

She takes first watch that night, and is leaning on the side of the rail, looking out over the white waves, when she hears footsteps approaching.

Saccharina isn’t wearing her armor, and she doesn’t have her staff. She’s in a simple shirt and leggings, her hair moving slightly in the wind. “Are you okay?” she says quietly, resting her hand on the rail beside Gooey.

Gooey doesn’t answer, just keeps looking at the sea. 

“It was the fire, right?” Saccharina asks. 

Gooey nods tightly. “It’s just gotten worse,” she mutters. “Everywhere. The people in power just keep getting stronger, every time we come back to the mainland. And what are we doing? Playing at being pirates?” 

“We’re getting stronger, too,” says Saccharina, fiercely. When Gooey glances over, her eyes are flashing with lightning. “It won’t be forever,” she says. “We’re going to take it all back, I  _ promise  _ you.” 

Saccharina places her hand on the side of Gooey's cheek, resting her light fingers right on her scar. Usually Gooey would flinch away from such a contact, but she forces herself to stay, forces herself to feel Saccharina's cold hand, to look into her bright eyes. 

"Nothing like this ever again," says Saccharina softly, her thumb tracing the edge of the scar. "Not while I'm around."

Gooey is not naive. She knows Saccharina isn't either. They've both seen too much, felt too much. But in moments like this, in the crispness of night, with their friends safe and asleep, she can almost believe it. She can almost believe that Saccharina's strong hands and sharp mind and bright eyes can fix everything that's wrong with the world. 

"Not ever," Gooey agrees, and reaches out her own hand to brush her fingertips across the scar on Saccharina's collarbone, the top of it just barely visible above her shirt. "Not to any of us." 

Saccharina makes a small noise almost like a sob in the back of her throat, and then she moves her hand into Gooey’s hair and tips her own head up and Gooey leans down to meet her. Saccharina's lips are cool and smooth and Gooey kisses her desperately, feeling like she's been drowning her whole life and this is the first time she's come up for air, and Saccharina returns it just as fiercely, hungry and fast, like she's trying to pack a lifetime's worth of kisses into this moment. 

And then, just as quickly, she pulls away. Gooey opens her eyes to see Saccharina’s eyes, just a few inches away, shining with sorrow and regret and guilt. 

“I--I can’t--” she says, and then steps back, and then turns and leaves, her shoulders hunched and her fists balled at her sides. 

Gooey stands there, looking out over the Dairy Sea. There’s a storm brewing, a huge thunderhead with lightning sparking through it out on the horizon. She watches it for a while, majestic and massive and miles away, until Jon Bon comes to tell her it’s his turn to be on watch. 

Saccharina finds her as she’s leaving breakfast the next morning. “Gooey, about last night," she says, like she's reciting lines. "I just wanted to apologize--"

Gooey holds up a hand. "There's no need," she says, because there isn't, and then she adds, softly, "your majesty."

For a second, they look at each other. For a second, regret and relief battle in Saccharina’s eyes, as around them, friends and sailors are finishing breakfast and getting ready to face whatever today will bring. 

Saccharina says nothing. Gooey bows, and then walks past Saccharina, who is standing with her jaw tight and her head held high. 

Later that day, while training some of the newer recruits on the deck, Gooey punches a training dummy so hard that she puts a hole right through its chest, and afterward, as days go on and Frosted Fleet grows in size and strength, there is distance, but there is no less love or trust. 

Soon, they are nearly 200 in number. They leave the sea and make a fortress in the mountains. They gather magic, hoard it, save it, and their names across the land are spoken with awe and reverence. The marauders have each others’ backs, accept each other unquestioningly, laugh together, fight together, and follow Saccharina to the ends of the earth. And she grows every day more powerful, more queenly.

More closed off, too. She collects titles like jewels, claims them for herself and walls herself up behind them. But that’s okay. That’s how it has to be.

No one but Saccharina and Gooey even notice, anyway. There are bigger things to be done. 

The news comes from the capital, carried by an exhausted messenger who got the word from a spy who got the word from a frightened soldier. King Amethar is a fraud, his marriage a sham, his heirs bastards. Candia is at war with the entire rest of the Concord, and foreign armies are marching on her shores. 

The words hit Saccharina like a tidal wave. Her kingdom, her family, at war. Her father and her sisters, in danger. Her  _ people,  _ suddenly thrown into war because of--well, because of her existence, sort of. 

And yet her existence is what could save them. 

All of them who were close enough to hear the news are standing frozen in place, processing, and it’s Gooey who moves first, who only pauses for a few seconds before she raises her voice. “All hail!” she shouts as the entire cave falls silent. “All hail Saccharina of House Frostwhip, first of her name, Witch-Queen of the Dairy Sea, High Priestess of the Sweetening Path, Archmage of Lost Sucrosia, Enemy of the Faith, the Sundae Sorceress, Storm-Captain of the Frosted Fleet--and the Sovereign Ruler of Candia and the Sugarlands.” 

On these last words, Gooey turns to look back at Saccharina, to hold her gaze. And then she drops to one knee. 

“Your majesty,” she says, and there is more weight placed on those words than ever before. 

Around the cave, the other marauders follow Gooey’s example, dropping to their knees around Saccharina, who clutches Winterscoop in her hand like it’s her anchor to this world. 

In this moment, she does not remind them that she doesn’t want to be queen. “Rise,” she says, half-trembling, and then, in a voice pulled from somewhere deep and sovereign within her, “RISE!” 

That night there is a feast, and the beginning of battle plans, and Saccharina saves her tears for when she is alone. 

The plan they form in the hungover light of the next day is to get the egg from the Ice Cream Temple, one last burst of power that will allow them to take the kingdom. The first scouting party goes out toward the temple, and the second goes to get more information on the happenings in Candia.

The second party returns with tales of treason and the fall of the House of Rocks and a missing royal family. The first party does not return at all. 

Saccharina is standing with six of the other marauders, discussing plans for another expedition toward the temple, when Swifty comes tearing into the cave screaming at the top of his lungs. 

Everyone in the cave pulls out weapons and drops into fighting stances, and Saccharina summons sparks to her fingertips as Swifty screeches to a halt right in front of her. 

“My queen,” he says, somehow not even out of breath. “We caught some fancy Candian motherfuckers in the nets.” 

“Are we in danger, Swifty?” Saccharina asks, trying not to sound impatient. 

Swifty grins wickedly. “Nah. One of ‘em tried to shoot me but I just stabbed them a little and they put their weapons down.” 

Saccharina sighs and lets the spell drop. Seeing this, everyone else in the cave relaxes too, and goes back to their normal business. 

“So who are these people?” Saccharina asks Swifty.

“Fuck if I know!” Swifty half-shouts. “Big guy with a big sword, stupid bear guy that I stabbed, lady in a pretty dress, creepy-lookin’ pink monk, scrawny teenage girl. Oh, and Jawbreaker’s kid.” 

Saccharina furrows her brow. “Jawbreaker’s kid? Which one?” 

“The Freezyburg kid. He fuckin’  _ shot _ at me! I about put him the ground right there, I’ll tell you--” 

Swifty keeps talking, but Saccharina is no longer listening. Liam Wilhelmina, the Jawbreaker son who’d been a ward at Castle Candy when everything went to hell. Fancy Candians, a lady in a pretty dress. 

A big guy with a big sword.

“Anyway Gooey thinks they should meet you,” Swifty is saying when Saccharina’s aware of her surroundings again. 

“Yes,” says Saccharina, slowly, heavily.  _ Pull yourself together, Frostwhip. You’re the queen. These are  _ your  _ people _ . “Yes!” she calls out, raising her voice so it echoes through the cave. “Everyone! We’re having guests! Someone get a feast together, the best we have!” 

Immediately, the cave is full of activity, and Saccharina turns and starts to climb the long set of stairs to the throne. She hardly ever uses it, only when she needs to make an impression. 

So if there was ever a time for it, it’s now. 

After a few minutes that feel like hours, there is a commotion at the front of the cave. A lone warrior breaks away from the group and hurries up the stairs. “Your majesty,” Gooey says, breathlessly, as she stands before Saccharina. “It’s them.” 

Saccharina nods, hoping her breath still seems measured and calm. “Okay. Okay.” 

“They seem uninjured, except for the knight who got stabbed by Swifty and then took a crossbow bolt for him.” 

“For  _ Swifty _ ?”

Gooey shrugs. “Also I’m pretty sure both the kids broke out of their manacles and are just pretending like they’re still bound. But I’ve got multiple people with arrows trained on them.” 

“No need, I’m sure. But thank you. Bring them up, please.” Saccharina takes another deep, steadying breath.

Gooey nods, then pauses. “One more thing. Only….only the younger princess is with them.” 

Saccharina feels a pang in her heart.  _ My sister _ . “Thank you,” she says quietly. “It’s good to know that ahead of time.” 

Gooey bows, and then begins back down the stairs. 

"Gooey."

Gooey turns. Saccharina is sitting on the throne, her back ramrod-straight, and there is a look of open terror and vulnerability on her face that wasn’t there a second ago. "Do you think they'll…" Saccharina starts, and hesitates, and continues in a low and trembling voice. "Do you think they'll accept me?" 

The fear and sorrow in her voice goes right to Gooey's gut. It shouldn't matter what the royal family thinks when Saccharina has clawed herself out of the depths of hell, when she has sought and preserved Candia's magic, when she has protected and saved those who rely on her time and time again. It shouldn't matter, but it does, because it does to  _ her,  _ and if these fucking nobles do anything less than kneel at Saccharina's feet Gooey will put her axe through the backs of their heads  _ herself _ . 

She ascends the stairs in a few quick strides and takes Saccharina's hand, lifting it to her lips as she goes to one knee. "They will adore you, your majesty," she says, ferocious in her sincerity. "How could they not?"

Saccharina laughs a little, ruefully. Of course. How could they not? She's the last hope of Candia, the perfect solution to a bubbling war. In another world, they might have denied her claim, like they do Joren Jawbreaker's. Then at least she would have known where she should. In this world, they will accept her, because they have no choice. And it wouldn't be fair for her to ask for anything more. 

It's also not fair for her to hope for it. And yet here she is, hoping. 

"Thank you," she says to Gooey, pulling her hand back. Gooey stands, and bows. When she straightens up, she holds Saccharina’s gaze, for just a moment, and then she hurries back down the stairs toward the group of manacled prisoners whose small shapes Saccharina can just barely see. 

Saccharina settles back in the throne, which is too big for her, and waits to meet her family. 

**Author's Note:**

> title is from "Cold War" by Janelle Monae because DAMN was Brennan right when he called it a "saccharina anthem"
> 
> find me at drinkingdeadpeopletea.tumblr.com


End file.
